FC100Enlightenment Political & Social Ideas

Killing is murder unless it is done to the sound of trumpets.
— Voltaire

The
Enlightenment was a period of nearly unbounded optimism and faith in
the human race's ability to solve its own problems, including
restructuring government and society along more reasonable lines. There
were two main factors leading into this search for a rational approach
to creating a better society. First of all, Deism, with its idea of a
God detached from our affairs, gave us the ability and responsibility
to solve our own problems. Second, this was a period of rapid social
and economic changes, especially in England with its booming colonial
empire and economy. London's population jumped from c.700,000 in 1715
to 2.7 million by 1815. Such rapid growth led to squalid living
conditions, alcoholism (gin consumption increasing by a factor of 10
times), drug abuse, and crime. While Deism may have given us the power
and responsibility to reform society, these conditions provided an
urgent need for such reforms. The result was a flurry of new ideas in
political science, economics, psychology, and social reform.

Enlightenment ideas on politics were rooted in John Locke's
Two Treatises on Government
(1694). Locke's basic idea was that government, rather than being at
the whim of an absolute monarch with no checks on his power, existed
merely as a trust to carry out the will of the people and protect their
"lives, liberty, and property." If it failed in its duties or acted
arbitrarily, the subjects had the right to form a new government, by
revolution if necessary.

Locke's ideas
largely summarized the achievements of the English Revolution of the
1600's. They had a tremendous impact on political thinkers in France
chafing under the corrupt reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI. Three of
these men, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau would profoundly
influence French political thought and provide the theoretical
justification for the French Revolution.

Montesquieu, sometimes seen as the
father of political science, looked at various types of government and
analyzed what made them work in his book, The Spirit of the Laws. Among the ideas he supposedly
derived from England was the separation of powers in government, a
vital part of our own constitution.

Voltaire, who first made
his name by championing the cause of a Jew wrongly accused and executed
for a crime, was probably the most famous of the Enlightenment
philosophers. Voltaire wrote on a wide range of topics, but should be
remembered here for advocating more civil and political liberties, at
least for educated people who can understand the implications of their
actions. Voltaire was less clear on what rights the illiterate masses
should have.

Finally,
there was Rousseau who said that people could only legitimately follow
laws they themselves have made. Otherwise, they were the victims of
someone else's tyranny. Therefore the ideal state is a small-scale
democracy in which everyone participates. Together, the ideas of Locke,
Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau provided the basic ideas we have
today on personal rights and liberties and how a government can best be
structured to guarantee those rights and liberties.

In economics, the most important figure was Adam Smith, whose
The Wealth of Nations
pushed for a wholly new attitude toward economics. Smith saw people as
selfish and willing to work much harder and produce much more if they
had the incentive to do so. He saw the mercantilism of the 1600's and
1700's, where the state tried to import gold and silver while exporting
its goods, as stifling to an economy. Therefore, doing away with
mercantilist monopolies and restrictions would provide more incentive
to produce. There was no need to regulate the market since people's
greed and the law of supply and demand would make the market
self-regulating. Smith's free market policy, known as laissez faire ("hands off") was widely adopted in the
1800's as Britain, Europe, and the United States rapidly
industrialized. It is still a vital part of our economic thinking today.

In psychology, there was Helvetius, who claimed
our minds and personalities are blank slates at birth and that we are
the products of our environment and the sum total of our past
experiences. Combining Helvetius' "blank slate" theory with the
prevailing optimism of the age was Jeremy Bentham. He felt we could
teach people to act in rational ways by providing an ideal environment
where they can learn the right sorts of behavior. Bentham's movement,
Utilitarianism, became quite popular and pushed for a wide range of
social reforms in such areas as prisons, law codes, and public health.